Safe House: How Emotional Safety Is the Key to Raising Kids Who Live, Love, and Lead Well

by Joshua Straub PhD, Meg Meeker M.D. (Foreword by)

Overview

Parenting isn't rocket science, it's just brain surgery.
And Dr. Joshua Straub has good news for you: You can do it!
 
You don’t need to do all the “right” things as a parent. Both science and the Bible show us that the most important thing we can provide for our kids is a place of emotional safety. In other words, the posture from which we parent matters infinitely more than the techniques of parenting.
 
Emotional safety—more than any other factor—is scientifically linked to raising kids who live, love, and lead well. Learn how to use emotional safety as a foundation from which you parent—and make a cultural impact that could change the world!
 
In Safe House, Dr. Straub draws from his extensive research and personal experience to help you:
 
- Foster healthy identity and social development in children of any age
- Win the war without getting overwhelmed in the daily battles
- Discipline in a way that builds relationship
- Understand how the culture is affecting your child and what you can do about it
- Cultivate responsible, self-regulating behavior in your kids
- Establish an unshakeable sense of faith, morality, and values in your home
- Feel more confident and peaceful as a parent
- Find a greater perspective on parenting than what you might see on a daily basis
 
 
Also includes a Safe House Parenting Assessment. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781601427892
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,087,931
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Joshua Straub, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, and family advocate. He uses his knowledge in the area of trauma to help people around the world, including those in Rwanda who seek healing from the 1994 genocide. Josh has served as the senior director of professional development for the American Association of Christian Counselors. He is cofounder and president of The Connextion Group, assistant professor at Liberty University Online and serves on the teaching team at Woodland Hills Family Church in Branson, Missouri. Josh and his wife, Christi, are the proud parents of a son and daughter.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dr. Meg Meeker ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Part 1 Why Emotional Safety-and Your Story-Matter

1 Can Parenting Really Be This Simple? 3

2 You Are Home: A Safe House Begins with You 16

3 Your Story, Your Kid's Brain, and the Science of Safety 33

Part 2 Building a Safe House

4 The Four Walls of a Safe House 53

5 Explore and Protect 70

6 Grace and Truth 92

7 Safe Discipline 110

8 Nurturing Our Child's Brain from Infancy Through Adolescence 127

Part 3 A Safe Village

9 The Bible and Safe Parenting 147

10 A Safe Marriage 164

11 Establishing Faith 182

Notes 200

Editorial Reviews

There’s no greater joy than raising children. There’s also no greater sorrow than when you don’t feel like you have what it takes to do it. Using the transparency of his own story, as well as his experience as a family counselor and dad himself, Josh provides a road map for making our homes the emotionally safest places in the world for our kids. Most importantly, you walk away with a true sense of encouragement that you really do have what it takes to write beautiful stories for your kids!”
—Candace Cameron Bure, actress, author, producer, and mom

“‘Home, sweet home’ is much more than a cliché; it’s a critically important goal toward which we should all strive as parents. Making your home a safe house is one of the best investments of time and energy you can possibly make. Joshua Straub shows how in this insightful book.”
—Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family

“Safe House is a must-read and a humbling reminder that there’s no safety outside of God’s sovereignty. Thank you, Joshua, for reminding us that it’s never too late to raise kids who live, love, and lead well.”
—Shelene Bryan, founder of Skip1.org and author of Love Skip Jump

“In a humorous but candid approach, Joshua Straub uses scholarship and his own emotional pain to help us face and deal with our own stories. As a product of six broken homes and a lot of abuse, I know the urgency and the desperation to rewrite my story for my children’s sake, and for heaven’s sake. Many of us are familiar with panicked efforts to child-proof our homes, but after decades of training students, I often wondered if it was possible to parent-proof our children. This timely book, Safe House, is full of wisdom, examples, and appreciations of, most of all, hope for our most cherishable possessions—our children.”
—Dr. Jay Strack, president and founder of StudentLeadership.net

“I wish I could’ve read Safe House before I raised my daughters. I’m sure it would’ve saved them many dollars spent on therapy. Thanks to Josh and this amazing book, I have a second chance. I am now embracing the principles in this book and applying them to my relationship with six beautiful grandchildren.”
—Ken Davis, author of Fully Alive and speaker and communications trainer

“To the exhausted parent, these pages are filled with hope. To the insecure parent, these pages are filled with confidence. To the parent trying to win your child’s heart before the culture does, these pages are empowering. Josh has created an insightful work-of-heart that will truly impact families for generations to come!”
—Shannon Ethridge, MA, life/relationship coach and author of twenty-two books, including the million-copy, best-selling Every Woman’s Battle series

“Parenting is hard. No doubt about it. We deal with insecurity and great frustration as we work through motives, parenting styles, and discipline strategies. Joshua Straub does a fantastic job in Safe House encouraging parents to stay focused on what’s most important: the heart of the child. This book will help eradicate insecurity and insanity from your home.”
—Ted Cunningham, founding pastor of Woodland Hills Family Church and author of Fun Loving You and The Power of Home

From the Publisher